BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
Forests have had an important effect on the existence of mankind over the earth’s surface. They have deeply affected the spiritual and religious life of the tribes living within them or nearby.
They have been a source of raw material indispensable to the economic development of the human race. The relationship between forests and man is manifold and varied throughout the course of human progress from the primitive stage to the present highly developed economic organization.
There is a shared understanding among all walks of life that forests are only one major category of ecosystems that support life on earth. Researchers urge there must be coordinated fashion to address issues related to the destruction of and need to restore all categories of ecosystems – from farmlands to freshwaters to grasslands, shrub lands and savannahs, and others – the United Nations has declared the period 2021 to 2030 as the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”.
Cities4Forests is an official partner of the UN Decade and is highlighting the Great Green Wall, an initiative launched by the African Union in 2007. It aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and promotes sustainable land management and ecosystem restoration of Africa’s drylands.
“This initiative will transform the lives of over 250 million people in the Sahel, Sahara, Horn of Africa and other drylands”, explains Dr Elvis Paul N. Tangem its coordinator at the African Union. “Once complete, the Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet – 8,000 km long and 17 km wide, stretching across the entire continent. The Great Green Wall is now being implemented in more than 21 countries across Africa and more than 100 billion dollars have been mobilized and pledged for its support.”
The “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” will aim to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of all ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It will officially be launched on 5 June 2021.
According to Abebe Seifu, Directorate Director of Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Combating Desertification Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission Focal point of the Ethiopian Great Green Wall Ethiopia pledged to restore 15 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2030. This commitment aligns well with the country’s aim of transitioning towards a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) with zero net greenhouse gas emissions and corresponding plans for large scale afforestation and reforestation.
The GGW program is part and parcel of Ethiopia’s response to global commitment to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and Bonn Challenge on the restoration of degraded lands.
The GGW is thought of as a continuous ‘wall’ of trees and development activities, spanning from Djibouti in the East to Senegal in the Western drylands of the continent. Instead of thinking of the initiative as a continuous ‘wall’ of trees and development activities, Ethiopia has decided to look at the GGWI as a mosaic of complementary land-use practices in areas subjected to advancing desertification and land degradation in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lowlands. EFCCC, as a focal institution for GGWSSI, has identified Ethiopia’s GGW route that stretches from Sudan in the North West to Djibouti crossing the north-eastern lowlands of the country and covers 58 Woredas in three national regional states: Afar, Amhara and Tigray.
The GGW interventions have been implemented over 13,150,194 ha as part of the regular government natural resource management program. EFCCC provides guidance and support and monitors the implementation of multi-sectoral and integrated landscape restoration activities.
The implementation of the Action against Desertification (AAD) in supporting the realization of the objectives of GGW and South-South Cooperation in Africa Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) has been operational from March 2016 to February 2020. The AAD had been implemented in Golina, Metema and Raya Azebo pilot Woredas along the GGW route in Afar, Amhara and Tigray National Regional States, respectively.
An effective global framework needed to regulate and stop alarming deforestation rates. As one important ecosystem, forests provide people and nature with essential ecosystem services and goods across local, national, regional, and global scales, including biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, water protection, food and energy, wood, and other raw materials for forest-based industries and bio-economy value chains. They also contribute to the achievement of nearly all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, they continue to be destroyed at alarming rates.
Ongoing research shows that most deforestation is man-made and that an effective global policy response is needed to address the disappearance of the world’s forests. “The main problem is that there are currently too many uncoordinated regulatory processes that are creating trade-offs, conflicts, leakage effects and loopholes resulting in complexity and largely ineffective responses to halt global deforestation.
These public and private ‘International Forest Governance and Policy Arrangements’ are not integrated and they still do not effectively address the main drivers of deforestation such as forest risk agricultural commodities. They also let policy and market leakage effects compromise all regulatory efforts developed and implemented so far.
As a result, they do not do much to address the underlying drivers and issues of deforestation’, explains Dr Metodi Sotirov, a Deputy Coordinator at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and Associate Professor in Forest and Environmental Policy at the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Nicole Polsterer, Sustainable Consumption and Production Campaigner at Forests and Rights NGO Fern supports a strong role and global leadership by the European Union: “Protecting the world’s dwindling forests is critical for humanity’s survival, as well as the planet’s.
It’s essential that the EU – as a major importer of agricultural products grown or reared on land which was once forests – acts. It should do so by passing strong regulations and complementary measures, ensuring that EU citizens are not complicit in driving deforestation through their consumption choices.”
The Ethiopian Herald March 23/2021
